Secrets
by caitie88
Summary: Ichigo's friend Akiko has to live with him after her parents die but what happens if she doesn't know that he is a Shinigami. One day when ulquiorra and yamy come to kill Ichigo, Akiko finds out she has abilities of her own. IchigoX OCX Ulquiorra
1. Kurosaki residance

I gazed up into Ichigo's chocolate brown eyes, he has changed a lot.

"It's nice to see you again, Akiko." He said, warmly. We stood at the door of the clinic, reminiscing about old times.

"You too, Ichigo." I replied. We knew each other when Ichigo and I were just little kids; we played with each other almost every Saturday. Our parents were good friends. Unfortunately after Ichigo's mother died I had to move to the other side of the country. We called each other a lot, about every week. We talked for a hour, but lately Ichigo had been out every time I called so I gave up. About a week ago my parents died in a car crash, I have no living relatives and no family friends other than the Kurosaki's so I moved in here.

Suddenly Ichigo was flung out of the doorway into a wall. Isshin took his place, grinning wildly.

"Akiko! I haven't seen you since you were a little girl, letting Ichigo choose all the games you played." The next part he said a little more soberly, "We missed you Akiko." I nodded, grimly, thinking of the reasons I was here in the first place.

"It's good to see you Kurosaki-san." I said politely to Isshin. Isshin grabbed my bag with one arm and put his other arm on my shoulder.

"No need for politeness, call me Isshin or Dad. Whatever floats your boat." He said, dropping my bag and lunging at Ichigo. I grinned awkwardly, what kind of father attacks his own son.

"Isshin's fine." I said, standing at the doorway pleading for them to stop. Not because they were fighting, just because it was so awkward standing there while Ichigo got the upper hand in the fight. I ran my fingers through my shoulder blade length blonde hair. My emerald green eyes scanned the room for a way to get them to stop fighting.

Karin and Yuzu rand down the stairs hearing the commotion. They shrugged it off and ran towards me, they looked exactly the same accept taller. Yuzu hugged me around my waist and Karin stood back grinning.

"We missed you so much Akiko!" Yuzu squealed. I nodded and leaned over to Karin,

"Do they always do this?" I asked, staring at Isshin and Ichigo. Karin turned around and glanced at them.

"What, fight? Yes they do this every day, sometimes twice a day." Karin said casually, obviously not worried that her father was getting thrashed. Ichigo stood up and grabbed my only bag I brought with me.

"You will be staying in the room next to mine." Ichigo grinned. Ichigo had changed a lot, he has gotten a lot taller and muscular, I only came up half way between his shoulder and elbow. But then again I'm short. He led me up to a room and placed my bag on the bed.

"I'll leave you to get set up; I'll be just next door." He said, shutting the door. I sighed and sat on the edge of the bed. The next day I would be starting school with Ichigo. I zipped open my duffle bag and poured out all my belongings. The moonlight shone through the window, it was about nine o'clock at night.

Inside the wardrobe was a school uniform, it was about my size and very dull. It had a white shirt with a red bow and a grey skirt. Through the paper thin walls I could hear Ichigo talking to someone with a very whiny voice. Obviously bored I leaned out of my room and pressed my ear to the door.

"_When's Nii-san _going_ to come back?" _The high pitched whiny voice asked. It belonged to a male I think.

"_I don't know Kon, she might never come back. Just be quiet, there's someone in the room next to us. She might be able to hear you." _That was defiantly Ichigo's voice. The whiny voice sighed. My heart was pounding, Ichigo was talking about me.

"_Wait you said she, can I…"_ The whiny voice trailed off, footsteps echoed through the room and suddenly Ichigo's door flew open. Ichigo was standing in the door way blocking my view into the room. My mind raced, I had to think of something to ask him.

"Um, do I need school books, because I looked around and I couldn't find any?" I stuttered, unconvincingly. Ichigo shook his head and shut the door. I dragged my feet back to the room, how could Ichigo have known that I was there.

I spent the next half an hour packing my things and lying on the bed, trying to hear the whiny voice again. After my shower I changed into my pajamas and sat on my bed. Memories of home flushed into my head, I lay my head on the pillow but something was making it all lumpy. I reached around and pulled it out from between my head and the pillow.

A yellow stuffed lion was in my hands, it must belong to Ichigo, Yuzu or Karin. I walked out and knocked on Ichigo's door, this time for a good reason.

Ichigo opened it and I hugged the lion to my chest.

"Is this cute little thing yours?" I asked. Suddenly the lion burrowed its head deeper in my chest, I shrieked and dropped it. Immediately Ichigo stamped his heel onto the lions face, I swear I heard it grunt.

"That thing just moved and grunted!" I yelled hysterically. Ichigo put his hand on my shoulder and said,

"I'm sure it did. I think you need to go to sleep, you must be tired." I grunted frustrated and stomped back to my room. I swore that the loin moved! I could hear in Ichigo's room Ichigo telling someone off quietly. I sighed to myself and crept under the doona cover, tomorrow was going to be a big day, I could tell. Slowly I drifted off to sleep, images of my parents flashed in my mind.


	2. First day of school

I woke up in the morning wondering if the stuffed lion actually existed or if it was just a dream. I groggily got dressed; I brushed my blonde hair and pulled it up into a tight pony tail. Some of my side fringe fell out of it. I ran downstairs; light was shining through the windows. Yuzu was making breakfast and Karin, Ichigo and Isshin were all sitting at the table, quietly talking to each other. Isshin saw me and yelled,

"Good morning Akiko!" I had a feeling that he was going to lunge at me, but he just stood still. Ichigo grunted and unblocked his ears,

"Do you always have to be this cheery in the mornings?" Obviously Ichigo wasn't a morning person. Yuzu served breakfast and I seated myself next to Ichigo. I leaned over and whispered to him,

"Do you by any chance own a stuffed lion?" I asked looking like an idiot. Ichigo thought for a moment.

"You mean K… why no, Akiko I don't own a stuffed lion." Ichigo said stiffly. I sighed, relived that I was just dreaming it. Yuzu passed Ichigo and I a plate each of bacon and eggs, I looked at my watch, it was 7:30.

"Ichigo when do we need to leave?" I asked, munching on a piece of bacon. He looked up at the clock on the wall and pulled me out of my seat. He ran and grabbed our bags and shoes and threw my stuff at me.

I pulled on my shoes outside and waved goodbye to Isshin, Yuzu and Karin. Ichigo did the same and slammed the door. He put his large, firm hands on my shoulders,

"You look good… in the uniform I mean." He added awkwardly. I smiled to myself and walked out the front gate.

We arrived at Karakura High school just on time. Random people looked at me, walking in with Ichigo. We were in the halls when a person a bit taller than me greeted Ichigo,

"Good morning Kurosaki-kun." The person said. He had blue-black hair that flicked out to a point on each side of his head. Ichigo nodded and said to the guy,

"Good morning Mizuiro." All of a sudden a person the same age as all of us came running down the hall. He had longish brown hair and was screaming,

"Ichigo!" Ichigo held out his arm at head level, after a couple of seconds the person ran into Ichigo's upper arm.

"Morning Keigo. Let's go Akiko, it's almost class time." Ichigo said smoothly and walked off. I gasped and knelt on the ground and Keigo sat up rubbing his head.

"Are you ok, Keigo-san?" I asked helping him up. He stared at me, grinning like a goof.

"Aki-chan… you have pretty eyes." I coughed; no one has ever called me Aki-chan before, mainly because I've never been close to friends with anyone. I nodded and said to Keigo,

"Um I think that we have to get in class, the teachers coming." With that I speed walked off into the class room. Ichigo waved me over to wear he was standing. He was talking to a really tall guy who looked like he was in his twenties, a girl who was slightly taller than me with long orange hair held back by blue flower bobby pins and a guy with longish blue hair and glasses. I shyly walked over to them; Ichigo put his arm on my shoulder,

"Everyone this is Akiko. She's my childhood friend; we've known each other since we were little kids." He pointed at me and I waved at them all. "This is Inoue Orihime," he pointed at the girl with long orange hair, "This is Sado Yasutora," he indicated at the big dude who looked like a twenty year old, "and this is Ishida Uryu." He pointed at the blue haired guy. They all said hello and waved at me, the teacher entered the room and everyone sat down and was quiet. I followed their example and sat down where Ichigo was pointing at.

"Welcome back class. Now we have a surprise, there are two new students with us today. One is Takahashi Akiko, stand up Akiko." As the teacher ordered I stood up and waved, shyly. This was degrading. "And the other student is Hirako Shinji, stand up Shinji." The other new student stood up and waved too. Shinji was talking for a while but I just tuned out. Something wasn't right about this week; Shinji didn't sit right with me and I just generally felt uneasy.


	3. Second day of school

Last night was very odd. I couldn't find Ichigo or Isshin at all. I needed to ask Ichigo something about school but he had just disappeared. The next morning I woke up late and didn't realize that I was really late for school until I was walking out the door.

"Hey Akiko, why didn't you leave with Ichigo before?" Yuzu asked. I was about to answer when I glanced at the clock on the wall behind Yuzu, I should have been at school by now, without answering Yuzu.

At school I was walking up the hall to our class, there was a commotion coming from our room. Ichigo and Shinji came out into the hallway; well Ichigo was pulling him out. Ichigo pushed him up against the wall, I couldn't hear what Ichigo was saying to Shinji but it was loud and Ichigo seemed mad. Shinji seemed totally innocent but all of a sudden his face hardened up, he said something back to Ichigo. Ichigo seemed taken aback by Shinji's comment, he looked over my way and let go of Shinji.

I walked into the classroom, wondering what was wrong with Ichigo. I know Ichigo, he wasn't a violent person, at least that's what I thought. Ichigo was day dreaming while sitting at his desk, there was a glint of sadness in his eyes. Orihime was also watching Ichigo with a worried expression on her face. When she saw me her face lit up,

"Aki-chan! I didn't think that you were coming back!" Orihime said. I was confused, what part of 'she's staying with me' didn't she understand. I grinned at Orihime and suddenly went serious again.

"Do you know what's wrong with Ichigo?" I asked her, glancing back at Ichigo. He was just staring at me. He stood up and made his way over to where Orihime and I were standing. He took my hand and led me out of the room. His eyes were even sadder than when I last looked,

"What did you hear me saying to Shinji?" He asked, firm but caring. His sadness was heartbreaking. I shrugged and looked him in the eye,

"I didn't hear anything, are you sure you're ok Ichigo? Whatever is wrong I can help, just tell me." I pleaded feeling useless. I hated seeing him like this. Ichigo sighed and looked at his feet,

"No one can help me." With that he walked off, leaving me standing in the corridor.

After school Orihime, Sado and I decided to ask Shinji what was wrong, he seemed to know. We followed him out of school. He didn't seem to notice our presence. He turned a corner and a short girl followed him, we decided to hang back until they had stopped talking but we were out of ear shot. The girl had blonde hair in pig tails and she wore a red tracksuit with red thongs.

I walked towards them first; Orihime and Sado seemed a little shy. Normally I would be too but this was different matter.

"Hirako-kun, what's wrong with Ichigo? You said something that really upset him." I said walking forward and ushering Orihime and Sado towards me. Shinji seemed surprised that we were there but the girl didn't seem too pleased.

"You were followed you dumbass!" She yelled and hit him over the head with her shoe. Shinji rubbed his head and grinned goofily,

"Aki-chan, Orihime-chan, Sado-kun, I don't know that you mean." He said unconvincingly. Orihime stared sobbing softly; I took her off to the side and was about to whisper something comforting to her when a huge asteroid looking thing dropped out of the sky to a nearby park. Shinji and the girl used this opportunity to leave Orihime, Sado and I just standing there. Orihime ran over to Sado and whispered something inaudible to him. She ran to the corner and looked back at me,

"Aki-chan, go back home. We have something we need to do." With that she and Sado were off. I sighed, as if I was going to do what they said and I followed them, far enough behind that they couldn't sense my presence.

At the park it was a horrifying sight, all these people were lying on the ground, not moving. Orihime and Chad were standing near two funny looking people, well not really people one person was huge and the other one was way shorter than him with longish back hair. Sado said something to Orihime and she moved back. Suddenly Sado's arm went funny, it looked like something that was black and burgundy swallowed up his arm. He went to attack the huge person when the person fought back and an explosion blurred my view of what the result was.

When the smoke cleared Sado was lying on the ground, still. Orihime yelled something and ran forward to Sado. Panic ran through my veins, if I didn't do anything Orihime would be injured by that huge dude. The two people exchanged words and the person swung his arm up to hit Orihime.

"Orihime-chan!" I yelled and moved forward to get to Orihime. The next moment I was already next to Orihime. I picked her up and moved. This huge portal appeared in front of me and without thinking I stepped into it. All I could think about was getting Orihime back to where I was standing. Within a step we were back to where I was standing. I dropped Orihime, she was quite heavy but now I had to save Sado. Again the portal opened if I focused hard enough and I stepped into it again. In the portal it felt like I was weightless, I was only in there for a moment but it was pitch black.

Out of the portal I ticked up Sado, he was heavier than Orihime which made it a lot harder. The portal opened where I was and where Orihime was. Suddenly I felt something hard hit my back with jarring force. I threw Sado in to the portal and I was flung past it into some nearby rocks. I lay there pain racking through my body, I couldn't move my legs or arms. The huge person said to the smaller one,

"Hey Ulquiorra, is this the one?" He said in a gruff voice. The other one sighed,

"No Yammy she is just trash. Kill her." During that short convocation I had managed to get to my knees. The one called Yammy kicked me out into the open away from the rocks with the same jarring force as before. He kept on hitting me and hitting me into the ground, I could feel my bones braking. At every hit my consciousness was further and further way and after every hit I would cough up more blood.

I was awaiting the next hit but it never came, I rolled onto my back and looked up. I saw a person standing over me. He looked surprisingly like Ichigo; he had orange hair and wore a black uniform. He held a giant knife in his hand; he pointed the knife at Yammy's giant hand.

"If you touch Akiko again I will kill you." At this point I couldn't keep my eyes open and I fell unconscious.


	4. Sneaking out

Sunlight shone on my face. I couldn't recognize the place where I was, my eyes were closed but the clothes that I was wearing and the place where I was lying was unfamiliar. Pain racked my body, for a while I couldn't remember what lead up to me lying here. I slowly opened my eyes and the sun was almost blinding. Sitting next to me was Ichigo; he was kneeling next to me with his hands in fists on the ground in front of him. He was looking at his hands and I couldn't see his eyes, only his orange hair. I reached over to grab his and with movement I felt that on my left lower arm, my stomach and my right leg were bandages. Ichigo looked down at me, he seemed even sadder than the last time I saw him. On his head was a bandage and on his cheek was a band aid.

"Ichigo…" I croaked, my throat was parched. Ichigo looked me directly in the eyes,

"I'm so sorry Akiko, I failed to protect you." He apologized as if it was his fault. I laughed although it hurt to.

"This isn't your fault. I was just an idiot." I replied. He didn't seem to think so,

"Oh it's more my fault than you know." I didn't understand what he meant but my brain as getting fuzzier by the second. All of a sudden blackness took over my mind.

The next time I woke up it wasn't as sunny. Someone was sitting in front of me; she had long orange hair and a kind face, a face I knew. It was Orihime. She looked at me and clapped happily.

"Aki-chan your awake!" She said gleefully. I coughed and looked around, Ichigo wasn't anywhere in the room.

"Where's Ichigo?" I asked, sitting up with pain racking through my body as I tried to do so. Orihime pushed me back down gently.

"He's at school. It's been about four days since the whole thing happened." Orihime informed me. I was about to open my mouth but she guessed what I was going to say. "Sado-kun's ok, he's in the other room, he's been up and about for a day." Orihime was looking past me, to the other door.

"Why aren't you at school with Ichigo?" I asked her. She just shrugged,

"Udahara-san told me I could stay here and look after you instead of going to school." She said as if it was nothing. I sat up again alert as ever,

"Wait, who's Udahara-san?" I can't believe that I was in the house of a strange person who I didn't even know and Orihime thought it was nothing.

"Don't worry about Udahara-san, he's very nice, he's helped us a lot of times." Orihime said defiantly. I was too sore to care; I lay back down and sighed. Orihime was too trusting for her own good. She walked out of the room, I waited for her footsteps to fade away and I jumped up. Unfortunately I jumped up too fast and I doubled over in pain. After a couple of minutes I hobbled over to the far wall and grabbed my school uniform. By looking outside I could see that it was only about 8:30. If I hurried up I could make it to school before the start of first period.

It took me about forty-five minutes to get to school due to a number of reasons. One was that I had to get out without Orihime seeing me I know that she would make me go back to bed if she saw me. The second was I had no idea where I was but luckily I was only around the corner from Ichigo's house. The final was I was injured; I walked at a snail's pace, probably a bit slower. I entered the classroom, flushed. My body was aching all over and I wish I could go back to Orihime and sleep. Ichigo was sitting in his seat looking all depressed.

"Aki-chan, what happened?!" Keigo yelled, drawing attention to him and me. I looked down; I had forgotten that I had bandages on, all I felt was pain. I limped over to my seat and slumped down. Ichigo stared at me as if he was going crazy.

"What are you doing here, Akiko? You should be back at the Udahara shop and resting, did Orihime let you out?" He yelled, everyone looked at us and Keigo was crying somewhere in a corner muttering something about accidents.

"Well, she didn't say I couldn't go in a way. I just didn't tell her." I sighed resting my head on my crossed arms on the table. I could tell that Ichigo was about to go agro on me just at the moment the teacher walked in.

"Good morning students. Welcome back Akiko and Ichigo, I hope you feel better."The teacher said cheerily as usual. The first subject we had was maths; I realized that it was going to be a long day.

After school it took me twice as long to pack up. Everyone was out in the halls when Ichigo and I were still in the classroom. I pulled out my bag and slowly but surely packed my things away.

"Hurry up Akiko, she this is the reason why you shouldn't b-"Mid sentence the door flew open, standing in the door way were 5 odd looking people. The one in the front of the group was the shortest, he had spiky silver hair and turquoise eyes, he seemed like he was only 13 years old. The only girl in the group had long orange hair, ice blue eyes and giant breasts. Another person was tall and bald. He wore a wolfish grin on his face and rested on his shoulder was a wooden sword. One of the people was the most feminine man I've ever seen. He had shoulder length purple-black hair and random red and yellow feather things on his right eyebrow. The last person had spiky red hair tied back into a ponytail. All together they looked like a bunch of freaks.

"Rangiku, Ikkaku, Yumichika, Renji, Toshiro!" Ichigo exclaimed. The shorty stepped forward and lowered his head slightly in anger.

"It's Captain Histugaya to you." He muttered. I was about to but in when they started talking again, something about Arrancars and Soul society. No one seemed to notice that I was standing in the corner just listening to their ridiculous convocation. The girl pointed out to the shorty about me,

"Um Captain, who's that in the corner?" She asked bending down to the silver haired midget. It looked like it was about to pop out. The midget looked over to me and was about to walk over to me when a very manly voice said,

"Never fight what you don't know." The voice was coming from the open window. Ichigo was just staring at the figure in the window. Either a very feminine looking man or a manly voiced woman jumped over Ichigo. It turned out to be a manly voiced woman; she had black hair in the shape of a teardrop. She was only a bit taller than the silver haired midget and a shorter than me. Ichigo stopped her before she could say anything more. He indicated towards me and everyone fell silent and I couldn't take it anymore, I stared to freak out.

"Who are you freaks?" I yelled at the top of my voice, hysterically.


	5. Challenge

Ichigo explained to me that the people were distant relatives come to Karakura Town for a while. I was a bit calmer after that but they still looked like a bunch of freaks to me. We all walked toward the school exit when I arched my back and rubbed my wrist sorely. The day had been very long and tiring. Ichigo turned around at the worst moment he could,

"Akiko you don't look well, please let me give you a piggyback."Ichigo said out of concern but I would have none of that. I scoffed,

"Pfft, I'm fine." I walked away confidently to the head of the pack. Ichigo speed walked up to me. He grinned suspiciously,

"Ok then if you're so fine run around the quad and back without collapsing or doubling over in pain." Ichigo challenged me, it caught everyone's attention. I don't know why people can't just leave me alone.

"Fine" I said frustrated. The boobzilla yelled as I ran off,

"Ooh I love a challenge; I bet that she won't make it!" The pineapple head turned to Boobzilla and said,

"How much?" My frustration sped me up but within a few I could feel my head spinning, it was too early to be sprinting. I fumbled a couple of steps and was about to fall on my face when the long purple black haired freak appeared in front of me and caught me.

Defeated I said full of hate for these new arrivals,

"Get off me Princess." The pineapple was handing over some money to Boobzilla and the silver haired midget was looking agitated and turned his back on them. Ichigo waved me over to them and I grudgingly hopped on his back.

After ten minutes of walking when I could be off somewhere else. We were only half way to the random house I was staying at when I just couldn't take it anymore.

"This is so degrading." I sighed and jumped off Ichigo's back. He was about to grab my wrist when I walked into a really big black and purple hole in the air. I obviously wasn't with it because all I wanted to do was get to the Urahara place as soon as possible so I could pack up my stuff and leave. Inside the hole in the air I felt like I was floating in the air.

_Ichigo's P.O.V (but Ichigo's not writing it)_

Ichigo couldn't believe his eyes; Akiko had carelessly walked into a giant opening in space and disappeared. No one else seemed to care until Ichigo rushed around like a mad man trying to find her. Matsumoto vaguely looked around but didn't seem to care and Renji defiantly didn't care.

"Why don't we just leave the brat? She'd probably be happier without us anyway." Renji joked, some of the others seemed happier with this conclusion but Ichigo shot them a death stare. Rukia seemed to be able to calm Ichigo a bit,

"How about we go to the Urahara shop and check?" Rukia said patting Ichigo's shoulder. Renji and Matsumoto groaned and Ichigo nodded.

_Akiko's P.V.O_

It was so boring sitting on the balcony of the house in the rain. It started raining a couple of minutes after I arrived. The door was locked so I had to sit outside and be bored for ages. After ten or so minutes Ichigo and the rest of the freaks turned the corner. Ichigo seemed relieved and angry,

"Where the hell were you?" He yelled, I flinched at this because I didn't really know the rational explanation of how I got here but I would be fine if he didn't ask that. I was about to answer when a person came around from the back.

The random wore black and green clothing and a green and white hat. He had blonde hair and wore a sword around his waist. Behind him was a really tall guy and two kids, the random walked forward to me,

"Ah, Akiko-san why are you outside in the rain in the stare you are in?" His voice was silky smooth and a bit freaky. He sounded like a petto, I didn't like him.

"Never mind that, who are these freaks?" I asked pointing at them. The wannabe bald ninja lunged himself at me but the silver haired midget held him back.

"Doesn't she know Ichigo? I thought because of what happened you would have to tell her." The silver haired midget asked, scolding Ichigo. An image flashed in my mind of a person with longish black hair and green eyes. Green tear tattoos were running down his face. On his head was a fragment of a bone type had piece that ran down to his neck. I couldn't make out what the person was saying but I think I knew what it was along the lines of… 'No she's trash, kill her.'

Suddenly anger flared up within me,

"Tell me what?" Seeing his resistance I pressed on with even more anger behind me, "Tell me, you silver haired midget!" I yelled, tears of anger were threatening to leak out. The midget ran up to me and looked me in the eyes,

"Hey I'm above you!" He yelled. I didn't quite get what he meant by that but I wouldn't be beaten.

"Oh yeah, well from up here you certainly don't look it!" I screamed back. The person with blonde hair stepped between us and broke up the screaming match.

"Ah Kurosaki-san I see you didn't tell her? I thought that because of what Inoue-san told me." The blonde person said with a sigh. Ichigo rushed forward with a look of panic on his face. I grinned smugly, Ichigo was getting his come upping's even though I didn't know what he had done or what the dude had said.

"Urahara-san, what did Inoue tell you?" Ichigo asked, the panic leaking into his voice. So this was Urahara, he's freaky. Urahara grabbed my shoulder and lead me inside; during the screaming match the other people had opened the door and put the shopping bags at the foot of the house.

"I think we need to talk, Akiko-san."


	6. The night

My life was seriously messed up. Urahara told me the weirdest things but the strangest part was that I actually believed him. I walked out of the Urahara shop in a daze, although as soon as I laid eyes on Ichigo my mind cleared immediately. I stomped up to him, fuming. Ichigo stood up as if everything was ok. I stood, dangerously close to Ichigo. He just stared into my eyes and before I could control myself I slapped him. There were tones of force behind it; I let out all my anger, all my frustration and all of my sadness.

"Why didn't you tell me you were a Shinigami?" I screamed, making a scene and not really thinking about what I was doing. Ichigo rubbed his cheek; there was a giant red mark there. People were listening to our conversation.

"Well I didn't think I'd need to tell you. Orihime told me what happened the other day, why didn't you tell me that?" He yelled back. I scoffed, how dare he asked me that after what he did.

"Oh well I thought that I was crazy. Wouldn't you if you saw A HUGE PERSON WITH BONE ON HIS FACE BASHING ME UP!" I screamed even louder than I thought was possible. Pineapple and manly girl was whispering quietly to each other. Before Ichigo could reply I stormed off.

A couple of days after the talk with Urahara I was still on bad terms with Ichigo. It was about 8:30 and it was pretty dark. I was trying to study but Ichigo was talking quite loudly to manly girl, whose name I found out was Rukia. I walked over to the wall that Ichigo's and my room share and bashed on it forcefully.

"Hey shut up in there! I'm trying to study!" I yelled louder than I had to for Ichigo to hear. I heard footsteps coming towards my room. The door opened and Ichigo peeked in,

"Hey Akiko, me and Rukia are going out for a while. Don't get worried if we come back late." Ichigo said his mind somewhere else. I scoffed,

"Oh so now you're going somewhere with telling me where, what's next? You not telling me what you actually are… OH WAIT YOU ALREADY DID THAT!" I said my voice gradually getting louder as the sentence went on. Ichigo's mind was brought back to earth; his face went sad as he shut the door.

I waited in my room at the Kurosaki house for about five minutes after Ichigo left to leave the house. If Ichigo could leave the house so could I.

I walked down the streets of Karakura Town aimlessly, I don't know what I was thinking leaving the house, now I'm lost. Wait I remember what I was thinking and I and happy that I decided to stick it to Ichigo and go out without telling anyone.

I turned a random corner and standing in the middle of the street was a man. As I got closer I saw the man more clearly. He had shoulder length rose pink hair, gold eyes, white glasses and wore a white shirt with black stripes in random places. His pants were like a skirt but the legs were separated. At his waist was a sword in a sheath, I didn't trust him. He had a grin on his face when he saw me,

"Hello, are you Takahashi Akiko?" He purred, it sent a shiver down my spine. I nodded trying to figure out whether he could be trusted. Unfortunately he made my mind up for me. He lunged at me with his sword out in front of him. Just like a fluke I narrowly avoided he stab by moving to the side, he didn't seem to upset. He just turned and slashed at me. Before I could think I put my arm up to protect my heart. He got my arm instead, right at the nerves. My arm flopped limply to my side, blood was pouring down it. It was extremely painful; he got my nerve which only made it worse; it's like he knew what I would do. After a moment or two to let me get focused he lunged again, this time I decided to use my abilities to benefit me. I sidestepped and walked straight into one of my little holes in space.

A couple of seconds later I appeared a few meters away but the pink haired guy was already there. He slashed at my left leg; I fell to the ground clutching my leg in pain. Again I couldn't move it, which left me with one leg and one arm. I slowly got to my feet, I could cope with the pain but I couldn't cope with the look on his face.

As soon as I got steady, not applying pressure on my left leg, he pointed at me,

"Cero." He said emotionless.

_Ichigo's P.V.O (HE'S NOT WRITING IT)_

_A couple of minutes before the Cero_

Ichigo stared at Grimmjow full of hate; he had stabbed Rukia and was constantly insulting him. They were above random streets in his town, fighting to the death. Ichigo knew he couldn't win, not with his hollow self this way, always threatening to come out and take over.

"Hey Ichigo, if I were you I'd be looking for that friend of yours… what's her name? Akiko." Ichigo tuned in after he heard Akiko's name. Ichigo lunged at Grimmjow,

"What are you on about, Akiko's safe at home studying." Ichigo hissed. Grimmjow blocked Ichigo's attack easily and replied with his own strike. It hit Ichigo straight in the chest; Ichigo fell to his knees, gasping for breath. Grimmjow smirked and pulled Ichigo up by his hair, he held the sword to Ichigo's throat and directed his head towards the ground.

"Take a look, do you recognize her?" Grimmjow said deathly quiet. All Ichigo could see was a dude with pink hair and… and Akiko! He struggled to get out of Grimmjow's grip, but he only pushed the sword further into his neck, causing a cut to slowly spew out blood.

"Wait, wait just watch."

_Back to Akiko's P.V.O_

I lay on the ground, burnt all over and panting for air. He muttered something like cero and then a huge coloured light shot out of his finger. I gradually got to my feet, the person just smirked. He swung at me, I couldn't do anything to block it, I had to just take it. He hit me directly in the chest, I fell to the ground. I was in too much pain to get up off the ground.

_Back to Ichigo (this time he actually is writing it just cuz I can)_

I couldn't look away, Akiko was being beaten badly. I couldn't do anything to help her which just made it worse. She wasn't moving, she was just lying there.

"AKIKO!" I yelled, loud enough that she should be able to hear me if she was conscious. She lifted her head and looked my way; she was lying on her back with a pool of blood surrounding her. She gave me a weary half smile and noticed that the Arrancar with pink hair was walking towards her. At this point Grimmjow relieved the pressure on my neck and with an even stronger grip only hair lifted me up so I was upside down for a couple of seconds and threw me with a great amount of force to the ground below, about five meters away from Akiko and the Arrancar. The Arrancar bent over Akiko, he lifted something up, holding it with both hands. I couldn't see what it was because my sight was getting darker and darker. I willed myself not to drift off; I had to watch for Akiko. I don't know why though because it's not as if I could do anything.

The Arrancar stabbed something shiny into the back of Akiko. She started thrashing around, I couldn't see her face but she was screaming and howling in pain. She eventually after a couple of minutes instead of thrashing about, she was quietly writhing in pain on the ground. I didn't think I could stay awake for much longer, just when I thought I couldn't stay awake, Akiko stopped moving all together. The Arrancar bent down but I couldn't see what was happening, I couldn't keep my eyes open the last thing I saw was a pair of feet blocking my view of Akiko. With my last ounce of strength I looked up at the person who was blocking my view, it was Hirako Shinji of all the people.


	7. Sayzel and Ulquiorra

The first thing I felt was pain, not intense pain but enough pain to make me wince. It had to be the middle of the day because even under my eye lids the sun was blinding. I fluttered open my eyes, I wasn't in the Urahara shop or Ichigo's house, it had to be somewhere completely different. The room was small and the walls were wooden. The doors were traditional Japanese style and looked like they could be torn like paper. I was wearing a plain white kimono that was really comfortable to wear. I was lying on a quilt folded a couple of times to make it comfortable. There was a light sheet thrown over me, the room wasn't hot or cold. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. My chest, left leg and left arm were bandaged.

Suddenly I heard vices outside the door, one was vaguely familiar and the other I had never heard before.

"So did it work?" The unfamiliar voice asked. The voice was calm and cool, it was soothing to hear and it lulled me into a false sense of security. I sat up to hear the convocation better.

"Yes it did Aizen-sama, would you like to see girl?" The familiar voice asked, I couldn't place where I heard the voice from. A few moments later I realized what they had said, I quickly lay back down, jarring my back. The door slid open and just before the people could see that I had my eyes open. Luckily I closed my eyes; I saw a flash of one of the people before I closed my eyes. The person had shoulder length pink hair and gold eyes; he was holding the door open for the other person. A spark went off in my brain; I knew who the person with the pink hair was!

"Ah, it seemed like it worked." The soothing voice said. The pink haired guy replied unemotionally,

"Yes but I'll need to monitor her to see if it has any side effects." This confused me; I didn't get that comment at all.

"Ok, do what you need to do but remember that she needs to stay alive." The cool voice said, obviously bored.

"Yes, Aizen-sama." The pink haired dude said finally. I heard footsteps leave the room and echo down a corridor. The person was still standing in the corner, he sighed and said,

"You can open your eyes now, he's gone." The pink haired dude said flatly. I sighed and opened my eyes; the pink haired dude was already out the door and in the other room. "There's clothes in the bathroom, you can change into those but you'll have to stay here for monitoring." The dude yelled from the other room.

Is slowly sat up and looked around my room, my neck was stiff and all my muscles were sore. Behind me was a door that I figured led to bathroom. I stood up slowly, my left leg was still painful to stand on but I gritted through the pain because I didn't want to look like a weakling in front of a stranger that probably could kill me in one blow. On the bench next to the sink was an outfit. It was the same colours as the pink haired dude but a different style.

It was a short white dress with black stripes where the seams would be, there were long white gloves that went up just past my elbow. There was a hook that would go on my middle finger so it wouldn't have to be an actual glove. It was in the shape of a v from my middle finger to my wrist on the top. The dress came don half way between my knees and waist. On the ground was a pair of black and white boots that came up to just below my knees. On top of the pile of clothes was a black belt. I quickly got changed without looking in the mirror, I unraveled all the bandages. My arm and leg were almost healed, although I assumed that it had only been a couple of hours since it happened. I stood in front of the mirror inspecting the uniform like clothes when I looked up at my face. On my face was a bone mask. The mask covered my right eye; it came down to the tip of my nose and went all the way up to my hair line. There was a hole for my eye, my eye had changed colours. Usually it was green but now it was gold and the bit that is usually white was now black, the other eye was the same colour though. There was a green outline around the eye hole; there were also three darker green shapes, almost like a sharks tooth below the eye hole.

In shock I lifted my hand to touch the mask; it was incredibly hard, harder than anything I've ever felt. I tried to pull of the mask but it was stuck on my skin, the harder I pulled, the more painful it became. My chestnut hair was surprisingly glossy and smooth; I had imagined it to be stained with dry blood. I pulled on the boots and gloves just as I heard people talking,

"Where is she?" A voice said, I had heard the voice before but I couldn't quite place it.

"What are you talking about Ulquiorra?" The pink dude asked, sounding bored. I walked out of the bathroom, slightly in pain but I was too intrigued to care.

"You know what I mean, Szayel Aporro Granz, the girl, Kurosaki Ichigo's friend." They seemed to be having a faceoff with each other's names. Ulquiorra! I know where I've heard that name and voice from! He was one of those Arrancars that came about ten days ago.

"But I need to monitor her for side effects." Szayel argued. I could see through the paper thin walls the shape of Szayel and Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra was significantly shorter then Szayel but Ulquiorra edged closer, trying to intimidate Szayel.

"If there are any side effects you will know about it." Szayel opened his mouth but Ulquiorra cut him off. "Are you questioning my authority, Szayel Aporro Granz, Octava Espada?" Ulquiorra asked, deadly silent. Szayel backed off a bit,

"No, Ulquiorra." Szayel replied, defeated. Ulquiorra slid open the door to the room I was in, he stood at the doorway and said firmly,

"Come." With my head hanging down I briskly walked out of the room, past Szayel. Once we had entered the hall I sighed,

"Thank god I'm out of there." Ulquiorra turned around to face me; his face was hard and scary.

"Speak only when you are spoken to, is that clear?" He asked. Again I hung my head down,

"Yes Ulquiorra." I said quietly. He didn't take his eyes off me though.

"It's Ulquiorra-sama."


	8. Funerals

_Ichigo's P.V.O_

I sat on the edge of my bed, wistfully thinking about Akiko. I was wearing a full black tuxedo, today was the day of Akiko's funeral. After I was healed by Orihime I was given the bad news, she was found lying on the ground in the middle of the street bleeding and burnt. I told my father, Yuzu and Karin that she was mugged but we all know the truth. It was my fault that she was dead; I didn't protect her from the Espada. I should have been stronger, a hot tear rolled down my cheek. I let more roll down, I shook uncontrollably. At the worst moment possible Rukia popped in. She took a moment to realize what was wrong.

"What's up Ichigo?" Rukia said, walking over to me, also in black clothes that she bought while she and Matsumoto were out funeral clothes shopping. I looked up at her, she was so consoling,

"It's my fault Akiko's dead!" I sobbed, letting all my sadness out. She sighed and replied,

"No its not, you couldn't have done anymore than you did to help." I stood up, rage bubbled inside me, she didn't understand.

"There's always more to do! I was lying right near her and I didn't do anything to help, I just lay by and watched her die!" I yelled tears of rage leaking out now. She continued to try and calm me down,

"You couldn't have known what was happening, you were half unconscious." She said, soothingly.

"HALF! YOU SAID HALF! YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND!" But she just kept on trying to calm me.

"Ichigo…" I cut her off, I couldn't take anymore of her, I needed alone time.

"GET OUT, JUST GET OUT" I screamed. She got up and rushed out, not scared but respectful of my grieving wishes.

_Akiko's P.V.O_

Ulquiorra was colder than he appears; we were walking for a good part of an hour. Just after I found a way to entertain myself he decides to stop in front of a random cupboard. He turned to me,

"Do you know how to fight?" He asked flatly, he looked me in the eyes, which was surprising. What kind of freak asks 'do you know how to fight?'?

"Of course I don't know how to fight! What do you think I am a ninja?" Seeing the look on his face I hastily added, "I mean no, Ulquiorra-sama." He nodded and opened the cupboard.

"Now you do." He said evenly.

Inside the cupboard was a heap of swords in their sheaths. He handed me a random one. It was long, about a meter in length, a mint green hilt, dark green sheath and the blade was shiny silver. As soon as I touched it a voice in my head whispered 'Tenshi no ikari' (Angel of anger).

"This is yours. Keep with it you at all times, I'll find you when its dinner time." He instructed and walked off. I stuttered a bit but he was already gone. I strapped the sword to my waist with a green belt Ulquiorra gave me, he was prepared for everything. Not knowing what to do I just started walking the other way to Ulquiorra.

After about an hour I passed someone in the hall. He had blue spiky hair and the same colour eyes. He stopped and stared at me, I stopped too, curious about what he was thinking.

"Hey Halfling, your Ulquiorra's new fraccion aren't you?" He asked, even just from seeing him for a couple of minutes I knew that I wouldn't like him. Halfling, what was up with that?

"Um I don't know what you're talking about and what's a Halfling?" I asked softly, not wanting to cause trouble. The blue haired dude sighed and rolled his eyes,

"Once a human now an Arrancar, but still a human at heart." He chanted and walked off.

_Ichigo's P.V.O_

I stood at the door of the church, it was decorated beautifully. There were white lilies all around the place. Orihime, my dad and Yuzu were standing over the coffin with Akiko's body in it, balling their eyes out. I looked to the side, there was a mirror hanging up on the wall. My eyes were bloodshot and I was pale. Orihime, Yuzu and my dad walked to the side and sat down on a seat. My turn. I walked up to the coffin. Akiko was lying there motionless and pale. She looked like a porcelain doll, she was lifeless and beautiful. Her chestnut hair was laid all around her hair and shone unnaturally. Her eyes were closed and I couldn't see the rest of her body because the rest of the casket was shut.

Tears were about to come streaming down my cheek but I held them back. I'm a man, men don't cry I thought. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder, it was Rukia. She took my hand and led me to a seat.

_Akiko's P.V.O_

Boredom swept over me. I was sitting on a rooftop, hiding from everyone. Half an hour after I met the blue haired freak I met another, just as bad dude. He had a spoon on his head, really long black hair and snake eyes. When he walked past I glanced quickly at him and he just decides to kick me in the shins and mutter in my ear,

"Go home freak." Without thinking I opened my mouth, even then I knew it was a bad idea.

"I want to, if you will kindly show me that way it will be much appreciated." I said sarcastically to myself. Unfortunately spoon head heard me and turned around,

"What did ya say, fraccion?" He said the last word with so much venom in his voice that it sounded like a bad name. I turned to him and searched my mind for an answer,

"It's just I don't want to be here and your treating me like I have a choice." I said quietly, wishing that I had ever said anything. The spoon head cackled with glee,

"Do ya wanna go me?" He challenged. I couldn't see a way out of this so I just ran for it.

Now here I am, sitting on the roof, hiding from spoon head. I was counting the tiles on the nearby roofs when I noticed a shadow from a person who would be standing behind me.


	9. Coyote Starrk

Standing behind me was a really tall man. He had brown hair and brown eyes, underneath his jaw was a bone thing like what all the other randoms I had met. He walked over to me and sat down next to me. He sighed and just sat there with me. I just kept staring at him; I swore he noticed me just staring. I couldn't figure out this man, he didn't seem as bad as spoon head and blue hair and he seemed to have more emotions than Ulquiorra. After a couple of minutes of me studying him and him just looking out to the distance he turned to me,

"You found my hiding spot." Brown hair said, sounding like a real person with no anger or emotional issues. I laughed for the first time in what seemed like forever. He grinned sluggishly,

"What are you hiding from?" He asked, staring back out to the desert. I swear that it should be night time by now but it's stayed the same as when I woke up at Szayel's place.

"Ulquiorra-sama, spoon head, blue hair, the world!" I listed off all that I could think of but I'm sure that there were many other people who would want to hurt me right now. The random brown hair laughed loudly at my last comment, I was growing to like this dude.

"I'm guessing that spoon head is Nnoitora and blue hair is Grimmjow. Yeh their pretty scary guys." He said, I nodded to the last bit. "So what's wrong with you?" I was about to ask him how he knew but he must have anticipated my question. "Come on I can tell." I sighed and explained everything that had been bugging me. How I didn't even know where I was or what I was and how Ulquiorra just gave me a sword and expects me to be able to use it.

"Ulquiorra-sama never uses my name; over the three hours I've known him he has only ever called me woman. Spoon head… I mean Nnoitora calls me freak and Grimmjow calls me Halfling." I sighed, resting my head on my hands.

"So what is your name?" The brown haired dude asked bluntly.

"Takahashi Akiko." I said bored out of my brains. The brown haired dude held out his hand and said,

"Nice to meet you Akiko, I'm Coyote Starrk." I shook his hand happily. He grinned at me, I liked Starrk. "Hey I can answer some questions for you." When he saw my eager look he continued. "Well you are in Heco Mundo, the place where hollows live. As you may have guessed you are an Arrancar and you are Ulquiorra's fraccion. Ulquiorra is an espada; they are the top ten strongest arrancar. He is number four espada, the lower number the stronger. Grimmjow is number six and Nnoitora is number five. As for the sword, I assume you will be able to use it but if you want to make sure then we can test it out." Starrk jumped off the roof and down five meters below to an open area. I shrugged and jumped as well, about half way down I realized that I just jumped down a five meter fall.

I landed on the ground without feeling any pain, the same was with Starrk. I looked in a window I could see myself, I only just noticed then that on the left side of my face was a pretty green pattern. It had squiggles and looked awesome, but on the middle of my chest, just below where my collar bone meets each other was a gaping hole. I tried to stick my hand through it but it was too narrow.

"Yeh, every hollow has a hole. I'm surprised you only just noticed it." Starrk commented.

He pulled out his sword and pointed it towards me. I did the same, the sword feeling familiar in my hand. Starrk lunged at me, I was startled but I didn't let that get me down. I lunged at him too, a huge grin on my face. Our swords met, Starrk pulled away and swung at my legs, I blocked him. I wasn't even thinking about what I was doing, this pattern repeated, Starrk couldn't touch me. I decided to go on the offensive; I swung at his leg and nicked it a bit. Seeing that he was surprised I swung at his chest, I would have gotten him if he didn't disappear and reappear a few meters away. Starrk whistled,

"Wow you're really good! Probably one of the best fraccion, no one is able to get me. Now try your released form, say the name you heard when you first touched the sword." I thought hard and I finally remembered.

"Flare, Tenshi no ikari." I said, feeling like an idiot. Starrk seemed impressed. Suddenly green mist surrounded me I felt a flare of power and a strange feeling on my back. My sword grew a chain on the end of the hilt. The chain was about four meters long and at the end was a razor sharp diamond with an emerald in the middle. I touched the edge and it cut my finger really deep. I turned to look at my back and sprouted out was a pair of huge fluffy angel wings. My mask came down past my shoulder and wrapped around my arm down to my elbow. There were various green patterns on the mask.

"Cool release, Akiko." Starrk said, sheathing his sword. He jumped back on the roof; I guess he just wanted to fight me.

"Hey how do you get out of it?" I asked slightly panicked. A familiar voice said from behind me,

"Just relax and let a small amount of energy." I jumped and turned around to see that Ulquiorra was standing behind me. I did as he told me to and I went back to normal. He nodded and said evenly,

"A worthy release for my fraccion, Starrk what rubbish are you filling the woman's head with?" He asked, looking up to Starrk. Starrk shrugged and jumped down. "Woman meet me in the west building." Ulquiorra grunted and walked off. Starrk was about to do the same when I grabbed his wrist,

"If Ulquiorra-sama is the fourth, Grimmjow is the sixth and Nnoitora is the fifth then what are you?" I asked Starrk.

"I am the number one." I quickly let go of his wrist and bowed so that he couldn't see my face. "Cya Akiko."

"Goodbye Coyote-sama." I said formally. Starrk turned back to me,

"Oh no need for the formalities, I'm Starrk to you." He grinned and left the clearing. I had no idea where the west building was, I was left standing there feeling like an idiot.


	10. Meetings and death threats

The next couple of days were a blur of confusion and badness. Whenever I walked anywhere alone strange things would happen. Like I could hear someone whispering in my ear 'Halfling', sometimes I would see a flash of blue then nothing. About twice a day Nnoitora would challenge me to fight. Once I was so pissed at him that I actually accepted, after five minutes I had to lock myself in and push really heavy things in front of the door. After about half an hour of him yelling abuse at me and swearing that if I ever came out that he would kill me, he got tired and walked away.

I was sitting in my little two roomed quarters when Ulquiorra barged in without knocking. He walked right up to me,

"Woman, I'm going on a mission for a couple of days so I'll need you to go to a meeting in place of me." He said evenly. I got up out of my chair,

"When is this meeting Ulquiorra-sama?" I asked, not really wanting to see anyone in this stupid place except for Starrk and Ulquiorra (depending if he has one of his good days).

"Now." Ulquiorra said calmly. I couldn't believe him, I ran out of the room without saying anything to him. I've had to walk with him once or twice to one of those meetings. ARRG! That means that I'll have to face Grimmjow and Nnoitora.

I barged in the meeting room; I must have been the last one there. Not surprisingly I was the last one there. Everyone around a large table looked up as I walked in; Nnoitora jumped up and drew out his sword,

"YOU! I WILL DESTROY YOU!" He leapt across the room with his sword pointed at me, while yelling, "DIEEEEE!" The person at the end of the table held out his arm and stopped Nnoitora; I had never seen this person before. He had long brown hair and didn't look like an arrancar.

"Nnoitora sit down." He said evenly. Nnoitora muttered something under his breath and then walked back to his chair on the left of Starrk.

"Yes, Aizen-sama."

On the right of Starrk was the only spare seat, so I sat down awkwardly. Everyone fell silent as I sat down; unfortunately I had a seat right across from Grimmjow. Aizen began talking, because the sun never goes down I couldn't get to sleep for the last couple of nights I decided to close my eyes and doze. The matters they were talking about didn't concern me.

Within a few minutes I felt a small burning sensation on my leg, I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was Grimmjow smirking at me. He this time I saw a blue beam shot at my leg and burnt another part of my leg. I didn't want to make a fuss so I stuck it out; I figured out that it was cero. He continued shooting cero at me until Aizen butted in,

"Grimmjow what are you doing to Ulquiorra's fraccion?" Grimmjow immediately stopped, everyone turned to Grimmjow.

"TRAITOR! HOW COULD YOU BETRAY ME! I TOLD YOU TO MAKE HER LIFE HELL, NOT GET WITH HER!" Nnoitora yelled, genuinely upset. Grimmjow tried to steer people's minds away from where they were going.

"N-no it's not what you think, I'm just shooting cero at her legs!" Grimmjow stuttered. Aizen sighed and everyone looked away.

"Well stop." Aizen said and continued with what he was talking about. Although Grimmjow had humiliated himself in front of the espada he continued to burn me with cero. I got so pissed that I decided to join the fight, my cero was weak but it still burned like hell.

After a few minutes of pain Grimmjow stopped and asked Aizen something,

"So where's Ulquiorra anyway? Why are we stuck with her?" Grimmjow shot me a smug grin, I pocked my tongue out at him, which was probably the most immature thing I had done for ages.

"Ulquiorra is out on a mission of high importance." Aizen said, leaning his head on his fist, also glaring at me. I shifted uncomfortably in my chair; Starrk leaned over and whispered,

"Don't worry, Aizen can come off a bit creepy but he's actually not that bad."

Grimmjow still wasn't satisfied, he had press on,

"What mission? Why can't you tell us?" I think Grimmjow already knew where Ulquiorra was, the smug look on his face said it all.

"Ulquiorra is off to the realm o the living to destroy the substitute shinigami, Kurosaki Ichigo." My heart skipped a beat; I jumped up out of my seat and screamed,

"WHAT!? ULQUIORRA-SAMA WOULDN'T KILL ICHIGO!" I ran to a spare space in the room and opened up one of my little portal thingies. Nnoitora jumped up and yelled,

"BITCH! COME BACK HERE! DON'T YOU DARE RUN AWAY AGAIN!" just before I shut the portal I heard Szayel mutter,

"Damn I forgot she could do that."


	11. Cero and friends

As I stepped out of the portal panic flooded my mind, I had to stop Ulquiorra and save Ichigo. I ran through streets, I had no idea where I was going so I started yelling,

"ULQUIORRA-SAMA! ICHIGO! WHERE ARE YOU?" I was in the verge of being hysterical. I had no idea where I was going, I saw Orihime walking in the street coming home from school. She saw me and I swear that she almost fainted,

"Aki-chan… wait you can't be Aki-chan, she's…she's dead!" Orihime started bawling her eyes out; I didn't know what to do. I had to find Ulquiorra but I felt so sorry for Orihime. I walked over to her and awkwardly patted her on the shoulder; she looked up at me with blood shot eyes. All of the sudden Chad and Ishida turned the corner, they saw me with Orihime and I swear Chad was about to show some emotion.

"Akiko-san! What are you doing here and why are you an arrancar?" Ishida asked, going even paler. Orihime stood up and backed over to Ishida nervously. Ishida stood in front of Orihime, "You're not Akiko are you?" What kind of stupid question was that!?

"Of course I'm Akiko! Who else would I be!?" I yelled getting frustrated. Ishida must be a reverse nerd now because he had suddenly gotten dumb. "Look I don't have time for this I have to find Ulquiorra-sama!" With that I ran off, although Ishida, Chad and Orihime were following me.

After running for about five minutes I saw two people in the sky fighting with swords, one had orange hair and one had long black hair. Acting on an impulse I yelled,

"ULQUIORRA-SAMA WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" The person with long black hair looked down, it was defiantly Ulquiorra. I was so relieved to see him, Ichigo looked down, he looked down, and he looked like he didn't believe that I was there.

"Woman, what are you doing here?" He asked. I could only just hear him so I jumped up from roof top to roof top until I was level with Ulquiorra and Ichigo. I stepped out on to thin air and I didn't fall. I ran up to Ulquiorra,

"Who the hell are you?" Ichigo asked, looking extremely pale. I was shocked, how could he not remember me? I turned to Ichigo and ran up to him, he jumped back from me. That really shook me,

"Don't you remember me? Ichigo it's only been a week or two, it's me, Akiko." Red hot tears flowed down my cheeks; Ulquiorra walked up to my shoulder and pulled me back from Ichigo. What Ichigo said next made me feel even worse,

"No you're not Akiko's dead, I went to her funeral. Plus she's not a hollow." Ichigo wore a look of rage and lunged at me. At this point Ulquiorra decided to step in; he unsheathed his sword and carelessly blocked Ichigo's attack. "How dare you use Akiko's body!"

"Get behind me Akiko."Ulquiorra said. I stepped behind him, after a few seconds I realized the strange thing about this sentence, Ulquiorra has never called me by my name before, he must be serious.

He swung at Ichigo ruthlessly, attacking all his weak spots. Although Ichigo blocked all his attacks, he was getting considerably tired. Ulquiorra was about to finally cut Ichigo when Ishida stepped in front of him and shot at Ulquiorra with these blue arrow things. He held a metal bow and blue arrows which I guessed was reiatsu. I learnt about reiatsu from Starrk a couple of days ago,

"Ishida what the hell are you doing!?" I yelled, drying the tears from my eyes. He glanced at me and sent a reiatsu arrow my way. I easily dogged it and pulled out my sword, I never really liked Ishida anyway.

I swung at Ishida with the same type of ruthless blows as Ulquiorra did. Ishida would just block my blows with another one of his arrows, they were so annoying, I had to jump around a lot to not get hit with them.

"Why can't you have a sword or something manageable?" I muttered frustrated. Ishida shot an extra big arrow at me and this time I didn't dodge, I didn't see it coming. It got me right on the leg, right where my tendon was. I buckled, I couldn't move my leg. Ishida aimed an arrow at my head; I shut my eyes, not wanting to see when I was going to die. Strangely the moment didn't come; I opened my eyes and saw Ulquiorra standing in front of me,

"Don't you dare try to harm my fraccion!"Ulquiorra sneered, he was genuinely angry. He held his arm out and pointed his finger at Ishida; although he was a couple of meters away from Ishida it still looked threatening.

"Cero." He said, oh that makes scene he was pointing his finger for a cero. Ishida yelled and was pushed to the ground by the force if the cero. Orihime and Chad rushed over to him,

"ISHIDA-KUN! WHAT THE HELL AKIKO?" She yelled, wow she must really be angry because I had never heard her swear before and she always called me Aki-chan.

"I can't disobey Ulquiorra-sama."I murmured, soft enough so that no one could hear me.

Tears of anger and sadness rolled down her cheeks, she and Chad moved Ishida under a covered area, where I couldn't see what was happening. I turned to Ichigo; he stared at Ulquiorra in disbelief. He lunged at Ulquiorra, Ulquiorra wasn't concentrating. I swear that he was going to get hit, so I ran up to Ulquiorra and blocked the attack. He looked up, he seemed shaken. I looked into Ichigo's eyes and sent him a pleading look.

"It's me, it's Akiko. I'm not dead." Ichigo's face seemed to soften, I backed away from him, I couldn't see where this was going. Ichigo sighed and replied,

"I know it's you." He grinned. I ran up to him, grinning with joy. I was in arms length of Ichigo when Ulquiorra, all of a sudden stuck his arm and sword out between us.

"Stay back Akiko." He said sternly. I couldn't believe him, he couldn't tell me what to do, well he actually can but that's not the point!

"But Ulquiorra-sama…" I couldn't finish the sentence; he glared at me and yelled,

"Get back!" Just after I took a few steps back he swung ferociously at Ichigo, anger flared in his eyes. I couldn't do anything, all I could do I watch. Ulquiorra was swinging at him with all he had, Ichigo couldn't take it. This time instead of dodging but getting tired he was getting cut, quite a lot. He only got cut shallowly and on arms or legs. I noticed that Ichigo had a massive opening and apparently so did Ulquiorra. He got his arm ready to stab Ichigo right where his heart was when I snapped. I ran up to Ichigo and stood exactly where he was standing. I heard Orihime scream,

"AKI-CHAN!" After a few moments I felt the blade go into my stomach area. Ulquiorra couldn't react in time and stabbed me with the force, meant for Ichigo. His face was flooded with shock, I could see that he was about to say something but nothing came out.

The pain was unbearable I felt like ripping the sword out of my chest but I couldn't move.

"I'm sorry Ulquiorra-sama." I managed to choke out. He pulled out the sword but that made the pain worse. I coughed uncontrollably, blood coming out of my mouth. I couldn't hold myself up any more, I toppled over on Ulquiorra just as everything went black.

_Ulquiorra's P.V.O_

I couldn't believe it, I stabbed Akiko. I had caught her, she was breathing shallowly and quickly. The woman on the ground was crying and the substitute shinigami was staring at me with rage.

"YOU STABBED AKIKO!" He yelled, watching Akiko's blood fall to the ground twenty meters below us. I sheathed my sword and looked at the substitute shinigami in disgust. He lunged to grab Akiko from me but I just used the shinigami equivalent of a flash step to get about five meters away.

"If you touch Akiko again I will kill you!" I spat, malice filled my voice. Ichigo growled as I pocked a portal in the air and stepped through, Akiko still unconscious.


	12. Lilinette dyes

The only thing that could wake me was a giant coughing fit. As soon as I regained my senses the first thing I felt was pain, not unbearable pain but it still was bad. The second thing was sun and warmth. I sat up and gazed around the room, this was where I slept in Heco Mundo, although one thing was added to the room. Ulquiorra was sitting on a chair reading a book; he looked up and saw me just sitting and staring at him.

"Ulquiorra-sama, why did you save me from getting killed by Ishida?" I asked. I was quite surprised that the pain was only a little greater when I sat up. He put down his book and stood up, he walked to the door and turned so his back was facing me,

"Because you're my fraccion and more importantly I don't want you getting hurt." Ulquiorra sighed, my heart was racing. "Now get some rest, Aizen-sama will expect to see you healthy and back to normal in a couple of days." With that comment he was out the door. I sighed and was about to rest my head on my pillow when a small girl burst in. She was short, looked about ten or eleven, chin length mint green hair, a bright pink eye and was wearing practically nothing. Her hollow mask was like a helmet, it came down to her eye. Her eye was like a black hole, you couldn't see anything but blackness. Above her eye hole was a pink flame marking, on the other side of her head was a horn but on the side of the flame the horn was broken.

"BITCH! YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW BUT I DO!" The formally cute little girl yelled. She ran up to me and squatted in front of me. Her face was filled with rage.

"Know what?"I asked, fairly surprised I was scared of a kid. She scoffed,

"Don't play dumb with me! You know what, YOU WERE TRYING TO REPLACE ME AS STARRKS FRACCION!" I sighed with relief,

"No I'm not." The girl stood up, she didn't seem convinced. She wasn't angry any more, just confused.

"But why does Starrk talk about you? There would be no other reason than he was getting to know his new fraccion." I laughed at the fact she thought Starrk had no friends.

"I'm a friend of Starrk's; he helped me adjust when I first came here a bit less than two weeks ago. Anyway, I'm Ulquiorra-sama's fraccion." She seemed relieved; she sat back down on my bed.

"Oh, I'm Starrk's fraccion, Lilinette." She held out her hand, I shook it. Her hand was tiny and bony.

"My names Akiko. So why are you here, why not Starrk?" I asked, trying to make convocation, which was not one of my strong points. She waved her hand, as if to wave away the question.

"Oh well he was sleeping, I was gonna wake him up, which pisses him off but then I thought that not waking him up would piss him off more." She grinned, I laughed. After that she seemed to just stare at me, she made me really uncomfortable.

Lilinette got up and ran out of the room, leaving me really confused. I stood up and walked around the room. I had no idea why, I was just bored. Right when I was at the door, it burst open and stopped about five centimeters away from my nose. I peeked around the door and there was Lilinette standing there searching the room for me. She saw me looking around the corner of the door,

"Hey I had the greatest idea!" She led me back to a chair and sat me down. "I was studying you and your looks when I realized that your hair is so boring. Since there's so many green on you I thought about what colour would look really good…" I butted in, trying to see what she was heading to,

"What do you mean?" She seemed a little annoyed about me butting in,

"You hair of course, I want to dye your hair. Anyway, what I was saying was that I'm going to streak your hair fluro pink." She held a box out to me labeled pink hair dye. I was about to object when she ran around to the back of me and pulled my hair tie out.

About half an hour later she was all finished, it looked quite good but I didn't know what Ulquiorra was going to say. There were just random streaks of fluro pink in my hair, she seemed quite proud of her art work. Just then Starrk burst through the door,

"WHAT THE HELL LILINETTE! WHY DIDN'T YOU WAKE ME UP!" he yelled. He nodded at me then grabbed Lilinette by the throat. "You knew that I had to see Akiko today and you still didn't wake me up!" Lilinette didn't seem to care much but I was really confused.

"Why couldn't you come back tomorrow?" I asked, getting a butt out glare.

"Well tomorrow I'm going on a mission and I won't be back for a week." I nodded and ran up to Starrk and gave him a huge bear hug, he dropped Lilinette and hugged me back. She sighed and commented,

"Aww that's so cute!" Starrk looked down and me and held me by the shoulders.

"I'm sorry Akiko I have to go and get ready, I'll see you whenever, come on Lilinette." With that they both left. I sort of thought Starrk as a fatherly figure, I didn't want him to leave but I couldn't let him know that.

So I was left standing in the middle of the room, alone with pink highlights in my hair. I sat on the only chair in the room and dozed for a quarter of an hour until the door opened. It was Ulquiorra. I stood up immediately; he gazed at me with his huge green eyes.

"What happened to your hair?" He asked, I giggled nervously.

"Umm, Lilinette dyed it." He looked away,

"Change it back."

"But I can't, its permanent." He walked up to me,

"Well then cut it off." He said seriously.

"NO, Ulquiorra-sama." I lowered my voice as the sentence progressed. He scoffed and muttered,

"I liked it better before…"


	13. Random battles

A couple of days after returning to Heco Mundo life slowly was going back to normal. I wandered the halls aimlessly, Starrk and Lilinette had left and Ulquiorra was being his usual anti-social self. Out of nowhere Grimmjow and Nnoitora ran up to my side. Great, that was the last thing I wanted to happen.

"So we heard about your little- I mean huge stuff up." Grimmjow smirked, I gradually started walking faster, turning random corners, not in the least worried about the fact that I was lost.

"Who do think you are, walking out in the middle of a meeting and causing Ulquiorra to fail the mission, given to him by Aizen?" Nnoitora spat, malice filled his voice. I was about to bite back but I held my tongue, I didn't want to cause anymore trouble. I was surprised Ulquiorra didn't lecture me about what I did.

"Ulquiorra came to talk to me the other day, he said that he hates you and thinks you have no sense in what's right or wrong. He hates having you as his fraccion." Grimmjow said playing on my emotions. He hit a sore spot; I couldn't hold my tongue anymore.

"Listen to me freak, and you too spoon! If you don't like me SO much then just leave me alone!" I screamed, hysterically.

"We won't leave you alone until your gone or better yet dead!" Grimmjow said dangerously low. Nnoitora nodded along with Grimmjow. At the same time they drew their swords. Nnoitora lunged at me and Grimmjow followed his example.

I couldn't believe them, their actually attacking me, in a corridor! I quickly pulled out my own sword and blocked both of the attacks. Grimmjow looked me in the eyes and Nnoitora had a vein popping out of his head, it was popping out so far I swear that it was going to explode. I stayed on the defensive the whole time, I knew that if they were serious they would go all out and then I would have no chance on getting away unscathed.

I managed to run to a more open space, Grimmjow and Nnoitora followed like puppy dogs, very angry puppy dogs. I tried to get an attack one of them but the other one came in and swung at an open spot. Nnoitora cut my waist a couple of times and Grimmjow got my arms and legs. They were only shallow wounds but that doesn't mean that they didn't hurt.

I held my palm out in front of me, Nnoitora was separated from Grimmjow. A green cero shot out of my palm, right towards Nnoitora. He didn't see it coming and was flung into the wall. I took this chance to attack Grimmjow, while he was staring horrified at Nnoitora; I swear that he couldn't believe that I actually got an attack in.

He was caught by surprise and quickly did a back flip to dodge and retaliated with his own attack. I copied him by jumped down to the ground. I heard a noise behind me, I swung around to find Nnoitora, his blade was at my head. It caught me on the cheek, a long cut emerged on my face. Face wounds bleed the fastest and that really annoyed me, blood was flowing down my neck ruining my white uniform, that was already torn and slightly bloodied up but now the shoulder was blood red.

"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE! I DON'T CARE ABOUT WHAT YOU THINK!" I yelled, trying to get through to Nnoitora and Grimmjow. Nnoitora scoffed,

"Did you hear what we said before? We want you dead! Plus you don't have the right character to be an Arrancar." He said the last part with the most amount of smugness I have ever heard.

"SHUT UP! SPOONS DON'T HAVE OPINIONS!" I yelled, again slightly hysterical. Grimmjow returned and I really couldn't be bothered fighting them. I ran, I just ran down the closest corridor. Grimmjow and Nnoitora followed, their swords were raised above their heads and they were screaming like banshees. I hoped that I would bump into Ulquiorra but unfortunately that never happened.

I ran flat out for five minutes before bumping into anyone handy, or at least I thought it was handy. Aizen and Ichimaru were ambling down the corridor coming slowly towards me. I ran with my head down, trying to not make eye contact with him, fearing that he would yell at me about the last mission. I ran past Aizen, I was almost a meter away from him when I felt someone grab my arm. I slowly turned around and saw that Aizen had taken hold of my wrist.

"No offence Aizen-sama but I really have to go." I pleaded. He shook his head and looked ahead, right where Grimmjow and Nnoitora would be coming from, I could hear a faint scream.

"No just wait." He said simply. Ichimaru stood still and talked to Aizen with a freaky fox smile on his face. The screaming was getting louder and louder until I could see them coming.

"DIEEEEe Aizen –sama!" Grimmjow exclaimed. They stopped dead in their tracks; Nnoitora sent me a death stare.

"Why are you attacking Ulquiorras fraccion?" They both looked at their feet for a few seconds until Nnoitora looked Aizen in the eyes,

"She is a disgrace to us Aizen-sama!" Nnoitora said fiercely. Aizen shook his head,

"No she isn't. Leave her alone and go back to whatever you were doing before." Grimmjow and Nnoitora hung their heads in shame and I swear I head Grimmjow mutter something extremely offensive. I tried to pull away but Aizen was still had a tight grip around my wrist. Ichimaru commented happily,

"Not you. We need to talk to you."


	14. Questions

Aizen and Ichimaru lead the way along the long winding corridors. Truthfully I never have any idea where I'm going in Heco Mundo, I always guess. They were talking softly in front of me, Ichimaru seemed to be having a heap of fun or I just think that because of his stuffed up face. They turned sharply into what seemed to be a wall but the wall opened to show a small room. In the middle of a small room was a table. Sitting around the table was Sayzel Aporro Granz and Ulquiorra, Tosen was standing at the back of the room facing the door. Aizen and Ichimaru sat next to Sayzel and I walked briskly over to Ulquiorra and sat next to him awkwardly.

"So Aizen-sama why are we here?" Ulquiorra asked, never even acknowledging that I was in the room. Aizen ran his hands through his hair and rested his cheek on his fist,

"I want to find out of your felling Akiko." He answered seriously. I looked at him like he was crazy, before I knew what I was saying a jumble of words flew out of my mouth.

"Are you serious? You dragged me here just to ask know how I was feeling?!" Ulquiorra glanced at me, his eyes were filled with a look that I couldn't place but it was still extremely threatening. "I mean, why Aizen-sama?" I kept my eyes down after that. Sayzel scoffed,

"Idiot! The drug I used to turn you into one of us was experimental; I need to know if there are any side effects!" Oh, that makes sense. I thought although I would never say it out loud. Sayzel continued to stare at me, "So how are you feeling?" He urged. I opened my mouth to answer but Ulquiorra jumped in before I could answer.

"She is healthy and there are no side effects." Ulquiorra said coldly. Sayzel sighed and replied,

"I highly doubt that you can answer for her. Just to be more specific do you ever get dizzy Akiko?" He put emphasis on my name. I was about to answer but again Ulquiorra jumped in.

"No." This pattern continued for about seven questions until Sayzel couldn't take it, I swear he was trying to make everyone, or just me.

"Akiko, why don't you answer for a change?" Before I knew what I was saying words spilled out again,

"Because Ulquiorra-sama's always right!" I regretted saying that half way through the sentence. I could feel everyone's eyes on me and I didn't like the attention. I could see in the corner of my eyes Ulquiorra smirking, that was the last way I thought he would react.

"So if you're done waiting my time I'm leaving. Come Akiko." He began walking away; I jumped up and ran behind him. I was so grateful to get out of there. We walked down the winding halls, I noticed this time that all the walls look the same so it would make it impossible for me to find my way out if I got lost, kind of like a maze.

Ulquiorra didn't talk to me the whole ten minutes we walked, I stayed behind him so that he couldn't see me and he continued walking, I doubt he would notice if I walked away from him and I doubt he cared.

Thankfully salvation came to take me away from this torture. Lilienette turned from one of the corridors, straight into me.

"Hey Akiko." She said, stepping between me and Ulquiorra, he dint seem to mind. I was so happy to see her; I haven't talked to anyone who actually liked me in ages.

"Hi Lilienette, where's Starrk?" I asked looking around, their usually together. She scoffed,

"That's a nice way to greet me, 'where's Starrk?' Honesty it sounds like you don't even care about me." She sighed, over dramatically. I laughed, I don't laugh often anymore but when I do it's usually around her and Starrk. Seeing that I did really want to speak to her she answered my earlier question. "He's asleep; we just came back from our mission." That's right; I asked her politely how it was, as you do. She answered with a five minute ramble about all the bad things that happened, most of the bad things were Starrk.

"Hey I heard that something big is going on around here in the next few weeks." She gossiped. I tuned in at that point.

"Do you know what it is?" I asked whispering. I have no idea why I was whispering because no one was around but it made me feel safer.

"No but I bet all the espada do because Starrk does and he won't tell me and what he knows other people normally do as well. Lilienette and I talked for a while until she said she had to go and wake up Starrk. As she walked off I did to in the opposite direction with no idea where I was going.

About an hour later I made it back to where Ulquiorra usually hangs. He was sitting on a couch reading a book, with perfect posture as usual. He didn't look up as I entered or even acknowledge me at all.

"Ulquiorra-sama, Lilienette said that something big is happening around here, do you know what it is?" I asked quietly, still really embarrass by what happened in the room where I was questioned. He looked up at me with hard eyes.

"That is for espada ears only." Bitch!


	15. Trust

Boredom was a common thing in Heco Mundo, the most interesting thing I would do is talk to Starrk or Lilienette. Starrk and I sat on the roof of a random building, talking about nothing. Suddenly I remembered what I had to ask him,

"Lilienette said that something's happening around here, do you know what it is?" Starrk nodded and looked down, onto the tiled roof.

"Well the espada are going to the realm of the living and we have to destroy a place called Karakura town." I gasped, if they go to Karakura town theres no hope for all the people there!

"Hey do you want some?" Starrk offered me a bottle with a clear liquid inside. I shook my head; in the past ten minutes I've noticed that he has been getting pretty tipsy. He urged on, "Come on, I even brought an extra cup for you." He shoved the cup in my face, and I hit it away.

"I'm under aged." I muttered, I was in a really bad mood. Starrk scoffed,

"There's no age in Heco Mundo and has that ever stopped Lilienette?" When I failed to answer, he answered for me, "No!" He filled the spare cup with sake and shoved it in my mouth. It tasted strange but addictive and it just made me thirstier. I took another sip…

_Ulquiorra's P.V.O_

I sat in my reading room, reading a pleasant book although in the last minutes I looked past the book and just thought. Suddenly the doors burst open and revealed Akiko leaning on the door. She walked up to me, though you couldn't really call it walking. She stopped right in front of me; I could smell the alcohol on her breath.

"Are you drunk?" I asked in disgust. She looked surprised,

"Well…" I cut her off by dunking her head in a well placed bucket, after ten seconds of her thrashing around and getting water everywhere I pulled her up by her hair.

"Are you sober yet?" I hissed. She looked down and mumbled,

"Yes Ulquiorra-sama." She seemed very embarrassed and so she should be.

_Akiko's P.V.O_

Ulquiorra stood tall and important; he seemed really pissed at me.

"Well what did you want to ask me?" He asked. His eyes were hollow with disgust and his voice was filled with it to.

"Um Starrk told me that the espada are going to Karakura town to destroy it, is that true?" I asked hoping that it wasn't.

"Yes, the espada are also taking their fraccion but I'm seriously considering not taking you." He replied carelessly. I couldn't believe it!

"Why?" If they were going to destroy Karakura town then I wanted to be there to minimize the damage as much as possible. Ulquiorra sighed,

"Well your behavior just then was disgraceful and you have yet to prove your loyalty." I ignored the first fault and focused on the loyalty problem.

"How can I prove to you that I can come?" I asked desperately. He thought for a while and then he must have thought of something.

"Come with me." He said simply. I followed him out the door.

_Ten minutes later_

Ulquiorra and I sat on a branch of a tree in Karakura Town Park. Below me was Orihime skipping along happily from school. There was no one in sight and Ulquiorra forced me to bring my sword along.

"Attack her." He pointed at Orihime. I couldn't believe it at first but I decided to show it. I used my awesome acting skills to pretend that I was ok with the demand. I would try and make less traumatic as possible for her.

I jumped down from the tree soundlessly and quietly I pulled out my sword. I flipped over Orihime's head and plunged the sword into her gut. I heard her mutter, 'Aki-chan'. I leaned in close so that Ulquiorra couldn't see and I whispered,

"I'm so sorry Orihime, please forgive me." I pulled the sword out of her gut and let her flop to the ground, blood pouring everywhere.

_Ishida's P.V.O_

I sat with Kurosaki in the Urahara shop drinking tea when I felt something strange, it seemed like Kurosaki did as well.

"Inoue-san's reiatsu just dropped dramatically." I declared getting to my feet. Kurosaki nodded and stood,

"I felt that too and also a slightly familiar reiatsu. Let's go." He said briskly walking out the door. I followed him, slightly annoyed because for once I wanted to be the leader.

A few minutes later we reached the park were we could feel Orihime's reiatsu the strongest. She was lying on the path face down with someone familiar looking walking away from her.

"Akiko-san what have you done?!" I yelled.

_Akiko's P.V.O_

As I walked away from Orihime I heard someone scream my name, I ignored them and kept on walking until Orihime grabbed my ankle. I shook her off and looked back over my shoulder

"Trash like you should not touch me." I added for extra authenticity. Running up the hill towards Orihime was Ishida and Ichigo, Ichigo was slightly faster though. I had to leave as quick as possible because I don't think I could keep myself burst out crying if I stayed any longer.

I jumped up to the tree branch,

"Good work, now you can come with me." Ulquiorra said staring down to the commotion below. I hated myself for that and what Ulquiorra said made it even worse. We left Karakura town right away, he wanted to say and watch but I convinced him to leave.


	16. Winter arrives

I was left waiting nervously for a week until they called us up. I was in the middle of a meal with Starrk and Lilienette when Ulquiorra burst in. He sent Starrk a dirty look; I don't think he likes Starrk because of the whole drunken incident.

"Akiko, we have to go, get you sword." He said tonelessly. I pulled out my sword from under the table, I always had it with me incase Grimmjow or spoon came on a homicidal rampage. I jumped up and walked to the door, just when I was about to leave Ulquiorra turned around and said to Starrk, "You should come to Starrk; he called for all of us."

Later Starrk, Lilienette and I met in a conference hall, of which I've never been before. All the espada and their fraccion where standing either on little ledges all the way up to the roof or on the bottom platform like I was. On a ledge a little of the way up was Grimmjow, spoon and his fraccion, they were giving me a death stare, even the fraccion. Up the top stood Aizen, Ichimaru, Tosen and a little retarded arrancar I think was called Wonderweis.

Starrk and Lilienette were the last ones to arrive so as soon as they walked in Aizen began talking.

"My friends, it is the day we have been waiting for! We shall destroy the little place called Karakura town and leave only rubble and lifeless bodies." Aizen yelled just so we could hear him. He turned at the same time as the rest of the people up there and walked through a newly created portal. The espada and their fraccion took turns to go through; we were the last because we were on the bottom level.

On the other side of the portal I couldn't see anything at first but as soon as I maneuvered to the front with Lilienette I could see everything. Standing in a line in front of us were all the shinigami captains with their lieutenants as well as Orihime, Ishida, Chad, Ichigo and Rukia.

"Aizen, should we just get it over with?" An old man asked in the middle of the group of shinigami. Aizen nodded, four of Brarragan's fraccion flew off in different directions. Four Shinigami followed them, two of which didn't have the lieutenant badge. Ichigo lunged at Ulquiorra and Ishida came my way.

Suddenly the order was plunged into chaos, the lines merged and people drew their swords. I jumped to the ground, with Ishida on my tail. I landed as Ishida yelled,

"Everyone else is like, 'don't hurt, Akiko, it's not her fault.' But I can see right through you, you've always hayed us, ever since you got here!" I scoffed,

"You know none of that is true. At first all I wanted was to get back to normal and at first I didn't hate you, I started to hate you after recess of the first day." Ishida pulled out a blue reiatsu bow, he pulled back on it and quickly released. I easily dodged it and attacked for myself. He dodged my attack as well and yelled from the top of a tree,

"I know what you are! Everyone else is fooled but I know! YOU'RE A HOLLOW!" Anger seeped into his voice. I laughed at his stupidity,

"Of course I'm a hollow, what else would I be?! NOW DIE NERD!" I yelled jumping up to the branch where he was standing and stabbed at where I thought he was, although it was just air. I heard him behind me and turned; as soon as I turned Ishida released an arrow. I ran to the side although the arrow skimmed on the surface of my arm, I couldn't care less. I lunged at him and flipped over him like I did with Orihime, although this time I took a stab at his back, though unlike the time with Orihime the sword didn't sink in. Suddenly I felt a jarring force hit my back, I was flung through the air into a building.

I had to take a few moments to work through the pain, at first I couldn't feel anything below my waist but after pulling myself up on a piece of rubble I felt agony shoot down my back. Although it was extremely painful I stretched out my back until I could feel my legs again. Looking over to where I came from I saw Chad and Ishida standing were I stood, waiting for me to come back. I decided I would surprise them with Sonído I learnt with Starrk. One second I was sitting on a ledge inside an empty house and the next I was standing to the side of Ishida and Chad.

"Cero." I muttered and held out my palm. It was too late for them to get away from me; they were caught up in the blast and sent down with a bang to the ground. I jumped down to the ground and glanced over at Ulquiorra and Ichigo fighting about 50 meters away from me. Ulquiorra lunged at Ichigo and Ichigo quickly dodged and retaliated. He plunged the zanpaktou into Ulquiorra's gut. I couldn't believe it; I stood there for a moment stunned by what I had seen. Ulquiorra dropped, lifeless to the ground.

"ULQUIORRA-SAMA!" I yelled and started running to his side but someone grabbed hold of my wrist, I tried to pull free but their grip was too strong, I turned and saw Urahara and the purple haired lady standing behind him.

"Why hello Akiko-san, I've finally found a way to get you back to normal, if you would just come with me…" I kicked him in the shins and yelled,

"I DON'T CARE! I HAVE TO GET TO ULQUIORRA-SAMA!" In his pain he let go of my wrist and I sprinted towards Ulquiorra. I heard Urahara mutter to purple haired lady,

"Your turn, Yorurichi." I heard movement behind me, then a jarring pain in my neck, I froze and everything went black.


	17. Abuse

_Urahara's P.V.O_

I sighed; this girl has caused a lot of trouble.

"So what should we do?" I asked Yorurichi, half whishing we had left her to live out her life as an arrancar. Yorurichi shrugged,

"You know my thoughts on the topic." She sat cross legged on the ground sipping tea on the other side of the table from me. The girl sat in a room on the other side of the wall. I sighed again,

"Well I guess that's what we'll have to do."

_Akiko's P.V.O_

My eyes fluttered open; I could feel that I was sitting upright. I could vaguely recognize the room that I was in. Suddenly a person jumped in front of me. I screamed as loud as I could, but after a few seconds I recognized that face.

"Akiko-san, you scared me!" Urahara breathed, he was holding a feather duster and was wearing a white frilly apron. I looked away, hoping that I could keep from getting mentally scarred. Suddenly I remembered the minutes leading up to me waking up here.

"ULQUIORRA-SAMA!" I screamed, and jumped up. I ran to the door and pushed it open, standing there blocking my way to see Ulquiorra was Yorurichi.

"Sit down Akiko-san, there's something we need to tell you." Yorurichi lead me back to the seat. I was a tad confused but I wanted to hear about what was so important that I couldn't see Ulquiorra. "We're very sorry but Ulquiorra is dead." Urahara sighed. A knot formed in my stomach, Ulquiorra can't be dead, he has to be alive they just don't know what dead is.

"Who killed him?" I asked deathly quiet. Urahara looked uncertainly to Yorurichi, then turned back to me,

"Ichigo." He said. I couldn't believe it, pressed my hands to my face and began to weep when I felt, or should I say didn't feel something,

"WHERE'S MY MASK?" I yelled and looked down; there wasn't a hole there anymore. I jumped out of the chair and kicked it back, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME YOU FREAK?" Before he could answer Ichigo entered the room. I didn't care what Urahara had done to me all I cared about as soon as I saw Ichigo was Ulquiorra. Ichigo rushed up to me and embraced me,

"I'm so glad your back!" I said, his voice muffled by my hair. I kept my arms by my sides; all I did in reply was muttered,

"You're dead to me Kurosaki Ichigo." And I pulled away from him.

_Two days later_

Apparently Aizen's army took too much of a beating so they had to withdraw. The shinigami allowed all the residents to go back to their everyday lives until further notice. The residents wouldn't remember a thing and life would go back to normal.

After Ichigo left two days ago Urahara told me that he had perfected a gigai that suppresses the hollowness inside me, so as long as I stay in the gigai I can use my hollow/arrancar powers

I sat in a chair in the room that Urahara assigned me reading a book. The room was quite spacious and there was my own bookshelf, bed, couch and cupboard that was filled with my clothes that Ichigo brought over the day before.

All of a sudden the door was pushed open and standing in the doorway was Ichigo, Orihime and heavily bandaged Ishida and Chad. They were all in their school uniform; it must have been a school day. Ichigo lead them to the couch across the room from me and they all sat down.

"How was your day Akiko?" Ichigo asked pleasantly. I shut my incredibly heavy and thick book and without hesitating I chucked it at him. It hit him square in the face and slid back down to his lap. He didn't seem the least bit worried or in pain. I shot up,

"I'LL TELL YOU HOW MY DAY WAS! I HAD TO SIT IN THIS GOD DAMN HOUSE AND LISTEN TO A SENILE PERVERT GO ON AND ON ABOUT HOW IT WAS SO NICE TO HAVE MATURE COMPANY BECAUSE APPARENTLY A FRIGGIN' GIGANTIC MAN MAID DOSENT COUNT!" I yelled at the top of my voice. The door to my room and Urahara stuck his head in,

"Quiet down Akiko-san, you're scaring away the customers." He said pleasantly.

"AS IF YOU HAVE ANY CUSTOMERS, OLD MAN!" I replied and sat back in my chair. There was a stunned silence for a while until I began to laugh,

"What is it Aki-chan?" Orihime asked. I turned to Ishida and Chad,

"Hahaha, I bashed you real good didn't I nerd? I'm sorry about you though Sado-kun, you were in the way." I apologized to Chad. He replied,

"No worries."I turned back to Ishida and continued laughing my head off. He stood up and said,

"I don't have to sit here and take this abuse." He walked out the door,

"Get well soon!" I yelled after him. Ichigo stood up as well,

"We should be getting going too Akiko, have a nice night." He said and shepherded everyone out the door. Orihime waved to me and I waved back and yelled to Ichigo,

"Bye dead to me!"


	18. Breakdown

Yorurichi decided that if I was going to stay in the Urahara shop for the rest of my life I had to stay fit. I couldn't leave the Urahara shop because everyone thought I was dead He said I might be able to leave in three years when I'm 18 but I would need a new identity. Yorurichi decided that once every two days I would go out in the middle of the day for a three hour training session and that every other day Urahara would fight with me to keep up my battle abilities. On the first training session it started with a 45 minute run around the town although nowhere near the school the Kurosaki clinic.

We ran through the park, while we were there I decided to take in the scenery because who knows when I could get out again. Yorurichi seems all over the place so she could just not turn up. The trees had lost all their foliage in autumn and now looked bare and cold. At the trunk of one of the trees was something carved into it. I tried to stay as inconspicuous as possible so that Yorurichi wouldn't come. The carving said, _Halfling he is coming for you don't lose hope. _It looked like it was freshly carved in because the writing was still green. I was sure that that message was for me. Looking forward I realized that Yorurichi had gone on without me.

_Three hours later_

We arrived back at the Urahara shop sweating and puffed out, all I wanted to do was lie down and sleep but no Urahara wanted me to go and help him, the girl and the red head shop. We arrived at the market at 3:30 in the afternoon. It was a risky time to go because there would be school people all around.

Urahara insisted that he finds the very best mangos in the place because I told him that mangos are my favourite fruit. As if some mangos can make up for the fact that he took me away from the place where I belonged.

Suddenly the worst thing happened, I saw Keigo, Tatsuki, Mizuiro and Chizuru walking my way. What I didn't get was why they were hanging out together, Tatsuki hated Chizuru. I ducked into an alley way and hid my head. Even though I wanted to leave the Urahara shop, people finding out that I came back from the dead after I was stabbed and burnt all over, they even have my body to prove it. I watched them until the red head kid, Jinta stood in my way.

"Whatcha doin'?" He asked casually. I jumped up and peeked my head out of the alley way.

"Trying to save myself from being found by the people at Karakura High School." I sighed and walked out of the alley way. I returned to Urahara to find he bought a dozen mangos and gave them all to the little girl, Ururu to hold.

"You see that Akiko-san, I bought you tones of mangos, you can't hate me now!" I sighed and took the mangos away from the girl who couldn't see over the pile and was about to walk into a pole. I took a cart from a nearby rack and set the mangos down. On the bottom of the cart was a folded white piece of paper that couldn't have been there too long, it looked too fresh. I opened it up, it read, _Akiko, I will meet you in three days, be ready to leave._ I recognized the handwriting it was messy and casual, it had to be Starrks. Before I could slip the note into my pocket Jinta came up behind me,

"What's that?" He asked, at this point I like the girl the most out of the people in the house. I folded the note and slipped it into my pocket.

"Just a shopping list of the person who had this cart before us." I said casually.

_Later that night_

After the shopping was done I ran into my room, pulled out the note and read it over and over again. It gave me hope that I was going to leave this hell hole. I slipped it into my pillow case and grabbed one of the many books on the cabinet. This was the only thing to do apart from socialize with the freaks outside.

Again the door was pulled open, why can't anyone give me peace around here? Standing in the doorway was Ichigo, Chad and Orihime.

"Good the nerd didn't come." I said. Chad moved to the side to reveal Ishida standing, arms crossed and looking at his feet.

"I didn't want to come but Chad made me." I laughed at how uncomfortable he was. This time Ichigo didn't ask how my day was, he was serious this time.

"Why do you hate me Akiko?" He asked. I couldn't believe it, he actually asked why I hated him!

"Because Ichigo, you ruined my life. You killed Ulquiorra-sama!" I said trying to keep my cool, I didn't want to lose my temper again.

"Oh is that all…" He trailed off, seeing the look in my face. It was a mixture of sadness and anger, the sadness took over. I started sobbing, for the first time since I found out he was dead I sobbed, once I started I couldn't stop. Orihime moved over to me and hugged me, her boobs were like a cushion.

"I think you all should leave." She said, as I wept. Ichigo took a step forward,

"But.." He said. Orihime gave him a hard stare, all the others were gone.

"Leave Kurosaki-kun." She ordered. For the next hour I sat with Orihime crying and talking about my time in Heco Mundo until I fell asleep.


	19. Escape

Waiting for the days to pass was the hardest thing. I tried to be more pleasant but I think Urahara was getting suspicious by the time two days passed. On the morning of the day of escape I sat on my bed re-reading the note for the millionth time until my door swung open and standing in the doorway was Ichigo, Orihime, Chad and Ishida.

"What are you reading?" Orihime asked and walked over to me. Before she could see anything I scrunched up the note and threw it in my mouth. "Did you just eat paper?" She asked. I turned my back to her and the rest of them and started gagging. I could taste the ink and the paper breaking down in my mouth. Without them seeing I spat it out and quickly stuffed it in my pocket.

"Yes I ate paper, don't you? I love the taste and texture of it while it's rolling around in your mouth." I added emphasis to it so they wouldn't want to talk about paper ever again. "So why are you here? You don't usually come in the mornings." I asked while brushing down the bed.

"Um we came now because tonight we have a school thing on and we couldn't make it here then. But we just popped in to say hi now so I guess we will have to leave." Ishida informed me while walking out the door. Everyone followed him and waved goodbye to me. I waved back seeing as I was in such a good mood.

_Ichigo's P.V.O_

After we left the Urahara shop I pondered Akiko. She was way, way too happy.

"Hey, did you think Akiko was acting strange?" I asked casually, acting as if I don't care just in case she was normal and I was being crazy. Chad nodded,

"She was way too happy." He muttered. He must be concerned if he spoke up.

"Yes, she must be up to something… I say we drop in after the school thing and surprise her." Ishida planned. Chad and I liked his plan but Orihime didn't.

"I think that Aki-chan was acting like herself" Orihime said while off in her own world.

_Akiko's P.V.O_

It was almost midday and I was waiting impatiently for Starrks arrival. Maybe he wasn't coming, maybe it was a practical joke done by some kid and it just so happened that I was waiting for the exact thing to happen. It couldn't be that much of a coincidence though, his hand writing was the same, it said Halfling on the tree and both times I got the message.

Suddenly I heard a loud bang, it sound like it came from school. Outside it looked like a bomb had hit the school, if the bomb was a beam of light that looked exactly like a cero. It was Starrks cero! I tried to get out of my gigai but I was stuck in. I used many different methods like grabbing onto a table and pulling jamming my foot on the window and pulling but none worked. Just for luck I tried once more, I pulled out just like normal and then when my body was out but not my feet I jumped. After I had landed I surveyed the room and lying in a heap was my gigai. I pulled my gigai onto the bed and arranged it like I was sleeping soundlessly.

_Ten minutes later_

I arrived at the school out of breath, I searched the school for Starrk but I couldn't see him. Without warning the building I was closest to collapsed, ruble flew everywhere and dust chocked the air. I fell to the ground, for one reason ruble hit me in the head and I was dizzy and another reason ruble doesn't skim along the ground so it's the safest place to be. After the dust cloud passed I pulled myself to my feet, the building was destroyed beyond all help and there were people lying unconscious under pieces of ruble.

Standing in the middle of the destroyed building was Starrk, Lilienette and Ichigo (Although his back was to me). Ichigo had his shinigami uniform on and had pulled out his zanpaktou.

"Starrk!" I yelled hysteric with happiness and a little messed but from the wound gushing blood out of my head. Ichigo turned to me,

"What are you doing here Akiko?" He asked, I began to run up to Starrk but Ichigo blocked my path. Acting on impulse I pulled back my leg and kicked him in the shins. He doubled over, unblocking my path. I ran again to Starrk, my sword flapping by my side. I was an arrancar again, a gigai felt really heavy compared to what I'm used to. Starrk embraced me in another bear hug, his bear hug were large and normally cut short by Lilienette. Right on cue she yelled,

"Come on Starrk! The shinigami is still here!" I smiled a hello to Lilienette and walked over to her side. Starrk shrugged and turned around; he opened one of the portal thingies. He and Lilienette stepped in.

"Akiko what are you doing?" Ichigo asked as I stepped into the portal. I shook my head and explained,

"I'm sorry Ichigo but you killed Ulquiorra-sama and I can't forgive you for that." The last thing I saw of Ichigo was him standing looking confused and heartbroken. The portal closed, after a couple of seconds the portal opened in a very familiar room, the room was where Ulquiorra used to sit and read. I scanned the room holding on to the last hope that Ulquiorra was sitting reading a book and he was!

"ULQUIORRA-SAMA!" I yelled running towards him, felling as if he had risen from the dead. I hugged him but he didn't hug back,

"I missed you, I thought you were dead." I sobbed, in the back of my mind I was mortified that I was crying in front of him. He pulled me back from him, I dried me eyes hastily, maybe he hadn't noticed that I was crying.

"That is inappropriate Akiko." Ulquiorra said, tonelessly. I stuck my hand in my pocket for security but I felt something squishy and gross. It was the piece of paper I had chewed and spat out earlier that morning. Without thinking I pulled it out,

"Why do you have a wet and chewed piece of paper in you pocket?"


	20. Epilogue

_Epilogue _

_One year later_

I skipped down the halls of Heco Mundo happily with Lilienette, it didn't feel like a year because we never age. We needed something to do and we needed it fast, before we died of boredom.

"I have a great idea… nah you wouldn't want to do that." I teased Lilienette. She was so bored she went wild eyed at the mention of something better.

"What? What can we do? Tell me!" She yelled, pulling down on my hair violently. I sighed and replied,

"Fine, what about we go to the realm of the living for a while?" Lilienette shook her head, she didn't seem to thrilled about that idea,

"No, remember the last time we went to the real of the living for no good reason, Ulquiorra cracked the shits. You know he's getting really over protective." Lilienette said casually. I sighed and stopped dead.

"Fine I'll see you later." I said. Lilienette shrugged and walked off. Once she was gone I surveyed the area and looked around for any rouge people.

_Five minutes later_

Trees are really uncomfortable, I had to hide my reiatsu while hiding myself. I sat in a tree in Karakura Town Park watching the people walk by, occasionally I recognized people that walked past but whoever it was I stayed in my tree. After five minutes a red headed youth walked past, at first I didn't recognize the person until I saw his face, of all people it had to be Ichigo. I curled myself into a tighter ball until he passed. My heart was pumping faster than usual, when Ichigo was out of sight I jumped down. I could feel a presence behind me, I just didn't want to react, I was too deep in thought.

Suddenly I felt someone wrap their arms around my stomach,

"Aki-chan! Your back!" I knew that voice, it was Orihime. I turned and about two centimeters from my face was Orihime. She looked older and wiser even though it had only been a year. "You don't look any different Aki-chan, your still the shortest in our old class." She said in amazement. I chuckled nervously, if she told anyone I was here then Ulquiorra would find out. I know it seems it's impossible for him to find out from Orihime telling Ichigo or her doll or something but he would find a way, that's just how freaky he is.

"So Orihime… how are people?" I asked, trying not to name names. She seemed to get the picture,

"People are good. How's Heco Mundo?" Orihime asked, feeling the awkwardness suddenly.

"Oh that's good, umm Grimmjow and spoon re still trying to kill me." I commented. She seemed confused,

"Who are they?" She asked. I shook my head and backed away a bit,

"Don't worry. I think I've really got to get back." I said, slightly disappointed. I turned to open a portal back to Heco Mundo when Orihime grabbed my wrist,

"He misses you every day, you do know that don't you?" Orihime said, sadly. I turned back to her, my heart fluttered but I didn't let it show.

"Thank you Orihime."


End file.
